Criminal Damage
by mydoctortennant
Summary: When Gwen is arrested and it's not her fault, she's not easy to forgive.


Dank and smelly; like sweat and unwashed people who had been rolled in hay and dirt.

Guinevere prided herself on being well kept. Her dresses were always laundered and laundered well. She may not have had a bath tube but she washed using a bowl and cloth every day. She did not belong here. Especially since the crime had no been her own.

The door rumbled open, casting light over her face. She glared up at the new body. Her stony expression didn't leave once she focused on who it was, only set deeper. Prince Arthur could rot in a cell for a year before she'd accept any apology. It was his bloody fault she was in here anyway.

"You're free to go," he said sternly, keeping up any pretence for the prisoners and guards around them. She glowered as him and stood, picking stray pieces of straw from her dress and throwing them down to the ground. As she reached him she noted the apologetic expression on his face and decided promptly to ignore him completely, "Guinevere, I'm-"

She cut him off with a deadly glare. He abruptly stopped talking and trailed out of the dungeons after her.

It was going to take a lot of grovelling to make it up to her.

X

She really didn't know what to think about. It angered her to think of the ridiculous actions and reasons as to why she had been arrested in the first place. That bloody arrogant pig needed a slap round the face and so did his manservant.

It was all their fault.

She heard a soft clearing of a throat and looked up to see the silhouette of the object of her anger sheepishly standing by the bars of her cell.

"What do you want?" she bit, eyes narrow.

"I came to say I'm sorry," he said quietly, tugging at his neckerchief, "I'm helping Arthur to find a way to get you released."

"Good for you. Anything else?" she didn't stand, she kept to her seated position and didn't raise her voice, keeping it dangerously low in order to show Merlin that she really wasn't in the mood for his happy-go-lucky ways that she had found so endearing in the past.

Never again.

"He said he's sorry."

"Good for him."

X

The small animal pottered about around her feet excitedly. Gwen laughed and watched as it clumsily tried to jump up onto her bed only failing an falling back to the floor with a quiet squawk.

"Live up to your namesake don't you, Arthur," she said to it with an amused smile on her face. She had become quite taken by the young chicken that Merlin had brought by that morning. He'd said he'd found it by the side of the road in a lot of distress and wondered if Gwen could look after it for him until he could return it to the farmer later that evening.

Gwen had agreed, rather stupidly in retrospect, she had the afternoon off and cold spare her time to look after the animal.

_"By the way," _Merlin had said,_ "I've named it Arthur."_

Gwen had laughed at him and wished him a good afternoon as he quickly disappeared off to his duties. She swept her floor. Gave the bird some of the left over corn she had in her stores and continued on with her household chores, unaware of how her day would end.

X

"Guinevere-" Arthur called out as she hurriedly ran up the steps from the dungeons out into the daylight. She didn't reply and kept walking, heading towards Gaius' chambers in order to avoid Arthur. She passed Merlin and kept her head down.

She had expected them both to follow her, but at least there she could argue and talk without anybody around them posing any questions.

She left the door to the Court Physician's open, finding the room empty. Gaius on his evening rounds before he would return and retire to bed.

"Gwen," this time it was Merlin. He appeared only seconds before Arthur did, looking incredibly guilty, "I'm so sorry."

"It's your fault. Both of you!"

"It followed me, I didn't know it until I got back."

"You didn't notice a bloody chicken?" she looked between the pair of them. Arthur held up his hands, trying to claim innocence but she was having none of it, "What were you doing down there anyway?"

"There have been bandits in the area, I was collecting reports from the outlying farms," Arthur said reasonably, "And it followed."

"So you got Merlin to give me the bloody thing and have me framed instead?"

"That wasn't my intent."

X

Arthur had been talking to the farmer's for the last hour. Considering he had no idea why he was actually there, Merlin had taken to talking to one of the chickens. It was trying to get out of its pen, which had been why Merlin had decided to call it Arthur. It didn't like to do as it was told.

He hadn't realised until they were back into the lower town of Camelot that the chicken had finally managed to escape and had followed them back to the main town. He sighed. He didn't have time to take the animal back now and he couldn't keep it with him whilst he did the remainder of his chores.

He saw the entrance to Gwen's house and briefly considered his options.

He swiped the chicken from the road and told Arthur he would be back in the castle shortly. The prince waved him off, knowing that he would be popping in on his friend.

"Merlin?" Gwen had answered her door promptly with her broom in one hand, "And a chicken?"

"Could you look after him for me? Just for a few hours until I can take him back to the farm?"

"Yeah, sure," she agreed blindly taking the bird from him.

"By the way," he called out before she shut the door in his face, "I've named it Arthur."

Gwen laughed and shut the door, putting the young bird down on the floor.

X

Gwen decided that she needed to collect some water from the well in order to finish making her dinner, and she could do with a fresh goblet of water after her housework. She checked on the chicken, it was happily bouncing about by the table making amusing clucking noises as it did.

"Stay put, Arthur," she ordered. It didn't listen of course but she left it all the same.

She returned five minutes later with a bucket full of fresh water from the well. When she opened her front door she hadn't expected the chicken to come dashing out of its current enclosure at such a speed.

"Arthur!" she shouted after it, quickly leaving the bucket just inside her door and running after the chicken.

A grumpy looking man pointed towards her, he'd been talking to the guards on patrol, "There! That's it!" the two guards walked towards Gwen who now had hold of the bird in question.

"Come on you," she was saying quietly to the bird as she gently held it to her turning back to walk to her small house, "You can't run away before Merlin gets to take you home."

"You are under arrest for the thieving of this livestock from Carter's Farm."

"Wait? What? I didn't steal anything!" they seized her from behind forcing her to drop the bird. She looked over her shoulder watching the farmer pick up the bird roughly by the neck and head back towards the outskirts of town. The guards dragged her towards the castle not listeing to her protests.

X

"I didn't steal the bird!" Merlin defended as both Arthur and Gwen scowled at him, "It followed me!"

"Taking livestock is an offence punishable by law, Merlin," Arthur informed him.

"I know, but I didn't take it! It was going to take it back!"

"Then keep it with you next time! I'm not taking the wrap for you again," Gwen retorted before heading towards the door. She was going home. She needed to rid herself of the stench of the man in the cell next to her. She'd have swore that he was dead and rotting if it wasn't for his incessant snoring.

"Guinevere," Arthur called down the corridor before she had a chance to disappear, "I'm sorry."

"I know, you've said."

"He really called it Arthur?"

"It was a plucky bird."

"Well I'm no woman," Gwen, for the first time that evening, cracked a smile at him, "Good night, Guinevere."

"Good night, Arthur."

"I really am sorry."


End file.
